While that case has bewildered family members and detectives who believed Jones, 72, was dead after he suddenly disappeared 32 years ago, Goodenough hopes his own ordeal caused by the alleged deception is over.

Starting in 1995, Goodenough said, he faced periodic pressure from federal officials to pay taxes on money he didn’t earn.

His frustration was compounded by the fact he has also worked for the federal government for more than two decades.

“I would show them my federal badge and say ‘Look, this is me. I’m not working these other places,’ ” Goodenough said.

The Nevada attorney general now contends Jones stole Goodenough’s social security number as part of a scheme to create a new identity to escape heavy gambling debts and create a new life for himself without his wife and three children. Jones, a one-time Chicago Board of Trade member, was working inside a Las Vegas casino under an alias, Joseph Richard Sandelli, when authorities finally caught up with him.

Goodenough is convinced the arrest never would have happened if he hadn’t been so frustrated by his tax problems.

Last year, he tracked down the man he knew as Sandelli in Las Vegas, confronting him over the telephone in a conversation that led nowhere.

Two months ago, Goodenough said, he sent a written plea to Arizona Sen. John McCain’s office. The letter explained that the frequent vacation days Goodenough was forced to take to deal with the problem was compromising his work as a registered nurse at a Phoenix veteran’s hospital.

A U.S. Army veteran, Goodenough said he is one of just a handful of staff members at the hospital qualified to insert the long-term intravenous "PICC line" that patients need for prolonged antibiotic drips, chemotherapy and other treatments of serious diseases.

McCain’s office could not be reached for comment Saturday. But Goodenough believes the Arizona senator must have lit a fire under somebody because suddenly the situation was a priority for the Social Security Administration.

“All of a sudden it was ‘Hold on just a bit longer, we’re working on it,’” Goodenough said. “It’s been a longer road to straighten this out than I ever expected.”